Mr. Smith sent me something highly disturbing today. For those who can't be bothered, Dr. Sanity has explained why she will quit medicine forever the day socialized medicine becomes a reality here in America.

Read it. I'll wait.

Good.

Now, Dr. Sanity...

I get it. Your argument is that the advent of socialized medicine is tantamount to the enslavement of your medical mind, and I agree with you. And, frankly, your decision to renounce your profession rather than submit to slavery is an honorable one.

But you'd better stay in the fight.

Most of us—you know, the guys and gals who actually PAY for all this nonsense—have read Atlas Shrugged. And we've all had that John Galt fantasy of grabbing our pile of f**k-you money and buying a one-way ticket to someplace with lots of sun and really cheap beer.

I get it.

But, see, in Atlas Shrugged John Galt and all the good guys pissed off to their giant Libertarian enclave way up in the mountains someplace, where they could interact with one another in perfect market efficency until the numbskulls down in the valleys ran out of beer and electricity and finally came to their senses. Now, I don't know about you, Doctor... but I haven't received my invitation yet.

Down here in the real world, when the light of market capitalism is extinguished in America, there really isn't anyplace else to go. Sure, you may be able to end your days quite comfortably... but you'd better spend some of your remaining wealth getting your children embedded into the new ruling class. Because once that light goes out, nothing short of another Civil War is going to relight it.

Think about that.

There can't be another Revolutionary War, because there is no New World to incubate the rediscovery of self-rule. No, we're talking a good old-fashioned Civil War, brother against brother and all that.

The last Civil War killed off 625,000 people. That's a LOT of casualties, at least until you realize that this number represented nearly 2% of the American population at the time. Then you do the arithmetic.

That's right. A modern Civil War would cost SIX MILLION LIVES... as many as the Nazis killed, but here, on Main Street. Your street.

So let's get our minds right, Doctor. You can quit practicing medicine if it eases the itch in your middle finger, but you can NOT give up.

You aren't allowed to.

I mean it. If civilization matters to you—if the notion of seeing your grandchildren grow up in the shadow of the gulag gives you even the slightest discomfort—then you are bound to pledge your life and your sacred honor to the preservation of this thing we call America.

Because there's noplace else to go.